Published: September 11, 2009 12:56 am      

CTC wins potentially lucrative contract

JOHNSTOWN — Lighter. Stronger. More fuel-efficient.

The Department of Defense again has turned to Richland-based Concurrent Technologies Corp. to improve the quality of the Army’s manned and unmanned ground vehicles.

A 30-company team led by CTC has won a Department of Defense contract worth up to $430 million, the company said Thursday.

It’s too soon to say how much of that money CTC eventually will earn, and whether it will be spent here or at a sister facility outside Detroit. But company General Manager Dave Schario expects another 25 to 35 people will be hired to assist in the work during the five-year life of the contract.

He explained how the process works.

The government first comes to the CTC team and says it wants to build the next generation of vehicles that will accompany soldiers into battle.

CTC’s job is to determine “what materials and technology can we include or implement to make that vision come to a reality,” Schario said.

“Lighter-weight vehicles, vehicles with increased protection from IEDs (improvised explosive devices), more fuel-efficient – all those types of things.”

CTC primarily will use its corporate brainpower to figure out the “how” and produce research papers to back up its findings. Other companies will build the vehicles, although the prototypes will be assembled in Richland.

The contract will support the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center, TARDEC.

The center is headquartered at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Mich.

The primary mission of the center is to be the government’s primary and development unit for military ground vehicle systems.

“This important program underscores our commitment to developing and delivering innovative solutions to U.S. war fighters,” company CEO Edward Sheehan Jr. said in a release. “We anticipate growing our business not only in Detroit but also in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and other CTC locations.”